You’ve probably all heard that Indian Prime Minister Modi ordered two of the most common high denomination bills (500 and 1,000 rupee) out of circulation and that they would no longer be legal tender after only a few days. India’s economy is, well, not modern. Most people do not have or use credit cards. Only […]

Turnout among Dem voters dropped precipitously in 3 statewide primaries on Tuesday, giving the party more evidence that their voters lack enthusiasm ahead of midterm elections.

In primaries in NC, IN and OH, Dems turned out at far lower rates than they have in previous comparable elections.

But supposedly, the Dems aren’t worried. Could that be because they really want the Repubs in charge so they don’t have to take any responsibility for the passage of Republican policies? Just imagine if the Dems were in the majority when Obama repeals Social Security. The Party would be dead. Oh wait…it’s already DOA.

“We had historic increases in registration in 2008 and we are working to turn out those first time voters again this fall, and we’ll do so united behind our nominees — which can’t be said of Republicans,” DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan said. “The real story in looking at motivation of the base from yesterday was a deeply divided Republican party that nominated deeply flawed candidates that overwhelming majorities of their own voters couldn’t support.”

“…these turnout figures paint a picture significantly worse than just the expected 2% drop-off. This is more than just a demographic problem based on age–there really is a meaningful enthusiasm gap.

And yet, despite this, there are still no public, national polls looking for answers on why Democratic turnout is so low. All it would take would be to ask a single, open-ended question to 500 people who voted in 2008, but self-identify as unlikely to vote in 2010, “why don’t you intend on voting?” Everyone has theories, but those theories lack empirical supporting evidence and invariably little more than “I speak for all unlikely voters, and they are unhappy for the exact same reasons I am.”

You’re probably right, Chris. I’m sure all those polls about how much Americans hate the forced crappy health insurance bill and the historic win of a Republican Senate candidate in ultra-Democratic Massachusetts are just outliers. Let’s wait for an empirical study and several peer-reviewed journal articles before we wake up and realize the American people wanted a Democratic President and instead you and the rest of the progs forced Bush III down our throats.

Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the third-most senior member of the House and chairman of the Appropriations Committee, announced Wednesday that he was retiring after four decades in Congress, a decision that reflected both a generational shift and the difficult political environment for Democrats.

“I’m ready to turn the page,” said Mr. Obey, 71. He told lawmakers and reporters crammed into the committee room where he has held sway for so long that he was “bone tired,” before adding, “And frankly, I think that my district is ready for somebody new, to make a fresh start.”

Officials said that after two days of intense questioning of the bombing suspect, Faisal Shahzad, evidence was mounting that the group, the Pakistani Taliban, had helped inspire and train Mr. Shahzad in the months before he is alleged to have parked an explosives-filled sport utility vehicle in a busy Manhattan intersection on Saturday night. Officials said Mr. Shahzad had discussed his contacts with the group, and investigators had accumulated other evidence that they would not disclose.

Faisal Shahzad, who is in custody in New York on terrorism and weapons charges, drove from his home in Connecticut to the theatre district on April 28 in the vehicle that days later he would pack with explosives, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press.

Mr Shahzad then returned on April 30 – the day before the attack – to drop off a black Isuzu get-away vehicle near to the target site.

But despite these preparations his escape from the scene on May 1 was hampered when Mr Shahzad discovered he had left the keys for the getaway vehicle inside the explosive laden car, the official said.

While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.

On top of that, the oil giant has spent millions each year on lobbying — including $15.9 million last year alone — as it has tried to influence energy policy.

A whole raft of measures, which include huge cuts to Greece’s public sector, have been announced since December last year, when the Greek government acknowledged the need to tackle Greece’s dire public finances.

The plans hope to achieve budget cuts of 30bn euros over three years – with the goal of cutting Greece’s public deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014. It currently stands at 13.6%.

Implementing them is also a condition of Greece receiving the billions of euros in loans it needs as part of the EU-IMF rescue deal agreed this month.

At least three people were killed Wednesday in Athens when rioters set a bank ablaze during protests by tens of thousands of people over austerity measures demanded by a multibillion-dollar international bailout of Greece.

A 24-hour national strike morphed into the strongest – and most violent – show of defiance yet over the austerity plan as millions of workers walked off the job and thousands took to the streets to vent their anger against the government.

What are you reading this morning? Please share! And have a terrific Thursday!

Taking great pains to explain how Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad was able to make it to JFK airport and board an Emirates airliner before being nabbed, authorities today said that they were following Mr. Shahzad, “but only on Twitter.”

A spokesman for the surveillance team following the suspected terrorist said that they were closely monitoring Mr. Shahzad’s tweets, “but he must have figured something out because all of a sudden he blocked us.”

The surveillance team’s revelations come on the heels of the Dept. of Homeland Security’s shocker that it had friended Mr. Shahzad on Facebook weeks ago and had even played the popular online game Farmville with him.

Honestly, if it weren’t Andy Borowitz, I’d almost believe it. The only people stupider than Shahzad are the idiots in Homeland Security.

The surveillance team’s revelations come on the heels of the Dept. of Homeland Security’s shocker that it had friended Mr. Shahzad on Facebook weeks ago and had even played the popular online game Farmville with him

Mother of Mercies, look down on us with an eye of pity! They found him because of his TWEETS???
So all the billions and billions for HLS has gotten us What? : Impossible lines at the airport and being told to glad bag and duck tape our houses? ( remember that one? )

Also noted relevant to the Miranda rights dust up and our latest bomber: according to legal beagles there is an exception in the Miranda rights for “public safety”—so miranda rights do not apply if you catch someone parking a bomb laden vehicle in Times Square—you can ask them what they are up to w/o reading them their rights.

More on that little-known exception to the supposedly universal American Miranda rights:

“Miranda is not a constitutional requirement, like giving someone a lawyer,” said Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former federal judge. “People who grew up watching cop shows on TV think it is more than that, but it’s not.”

The Supreme Court held in 2004 that law-enforcement officers are not constitutionally required to issue Miranda warnings. The risk, however, is that incriminating statements, such as a confession, are not admissible, potentially weakening the case.

I still have that campaign leaflet where Obama was accusing Clinton of “losing seats in Congress and Governors during his term”

The primaries sound even more odd in retrospect.

Hillary’s arguments were so basic, so plainly obvious, pointing out the holes in the record of a senator who had not even served a full term before running for president, and the MSM and the prog blogs hounded her for throwing the kitchen sink at him.

Obama made the 2008 election a referendum on the last two term Democratic president who left office with an approval rating in the high sixties… yet Obama was considered a nice guy, above the fray.

Yeah, and GW was considered a guy you’d like to have a beer with [even though he was a recovering alcoholic].

There’s a number of squealing noises coming from the progs, the ones who can still think, that is. They pushed a fraud. The only “historic” aspect about it is Obama may go down as one of the most incompetent Presidents on record. He may be the Master of Distraction but that dog don’t hunt.

Federal documents show that the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) gave BP a “categorical exclusion” on April 6, 2009 to commence drilling with Deepwater Horizon even though it had not produced the impact study required by a law known as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The report would have included probable ecological consequences in the event of a spill….

Yes, there’s a whole body of research literature looking at work stress measures and health. One of my grad school classes now is on this subject. All that advice about relax, eat right, exercise puts the blame on employees. However, the problem is rarely that simple. We need organization-wide changes to make workplaces physiologically healthier for humans.

In a decisive and vulgar 7-2 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court once again upheld the constitution’s First Amendment this week, calling the freedom of expression among the most “inalienable and important rights that a motherfucker can have.”

“It is the opinion of this court that the right to speak without censorship or fear of intimidation is fundamental to a healthy democracy,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority. “Furthermore, the court finds that the right to say whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want, is not only a founding tenet, but remains essential to the continued success of this nation.”

I have been told by students of mine that voter turnout for 2008 was “historic” (what else) and that it was “over 80%.” Not quite. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html
People stay home for lots of reasons, but one is, IMHO, that they now realize there is no genuine choice for the most part. You are picking between people who are going to screw you frontways and people who are going to screw you sideways. The two major parties may have a lock on people because of their money and power and the fear that good candidates from third parties can’t get elected, but they have lost the hearts and minds of the people. As much as I detest Obama, I can understand how people got swept up if they didn’t examine his actual policies and record. And he has let them all down with a bang.

My wifes Uncle was a 16 term US Rep – and he passed away while serving. I’m actually glad to see a lot of reps and Senators retiring both for personal and political reasons. I’m not in favor of mandatory retirement or term limits but there is really a downside to long servers. They serve too long, get too much power and all amazingly end up millionaires. Secondly it is a very demanding job and absolute power and all that. Change is good.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics has come up with a compromise on female genital mutilation.”

“In addition, “mutilation” is an inflammatory term that tends to foreclose communication and that fails to respect the experience of the many women who have had their genitals altered and who do not perceive themselves as “mutilated.” It is paradoxical to recommend “culturally sensitive counseling” while using culturally insensitive language. “Female genital cutting” is a neutral, descriptive term.”

Is their first tenet to PROTECT CHILDREN? Are baby girl, young girls and teenage girls NOT CHILDREN? What happened to FIRST DO NO HARM!

I tell ya, we are going backwards, and are loosing ground ever since the signing of the Stupakistan Presidential Executive Order by President Obama taking away women’s reproductive rights coverage.

They see an opening and are trying to take full advantage. Where are the Women’s Groups who should be voicing their opposition to this utter nonsense being promoted by a group calling themselves pediatricians/doctors!?!

Female genital mutilation is carried out for cultural and religious reasons. Women across the world are affected by the practice which is widely recognised as a violation of human rights. Two million girls are at at risk world wide…

Imagine if circumcision left men unable to urinate, unable to procreate (with a side affect of mortal complications if attempted), caused their penis to rupture because the tip was sewn shut, caused infections, and they weren’t able to EVER function as God intended them too…leaving them unable to orgasm (causing marital issues of them being called frigid). Oh, and once CUT it couldn’t be fixed…EVER!

Would they call it NEUTRAL!

If God wanted women to NOT have all their body parts, GOD would have already done a correction, but it is the BLOODY ARS MENZ that are using Female Genital Mutilation to raise their MANHOOD UP…cuz they have issues and want to control and oppress women.

FGM isn’t a religious practice; it’s a cultural one. Where it’s prevalent, it’s practiced by members of all religions. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, for instance, it’s done by Christians, Jews and Muslims. It’s also found among practictioners of indigenous religions, as well as indigenous converts to all of the monotheisms.

Much of Central Africa–Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Congo, etc.–runs 80-90% Christian because those areas were heavily missionized during their time as European colonies.

Lambert has the best response to Bowers’s idiocy. Here’s some of it but do read the whole thing:

‘So it’s really pretty simple, because people aren’t nearly as stupid as the career “progressives” think they are, even if they haven’t been to grad school. What Obama’s done for the people the career “progressives” shoved under the bus in “the changing of the guard” can be summed up in two words:

‘”Jack” and “squat.”

‘So no wonder people don’t want to give the Ds their vote. Why would they?

‘There. That’s your polling. Where do I send my extremely large bill? Andy Stern’s office? No? Not any more? What a shame.’

I was watching some of the coverage of the market crash and its relationship to the Greek debt crisis on CNN. Rick Sanchez just asked one of the field reporters about who was rioting. He asked if it was government workers or “people from villages”.

The Times Square vendors were instrumental in detecting the strange behavior of Faisal Shahzad and his attempted bombing plot. It is reported that Faisal bought the wrong kind of fertilizer, the kind that does not explode. I guess he got an F on the bombing course.

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Body: Last week I went down to Washington, D.C. to deliver a paper at a conference in the technical field where I worked, ten years or so and two or three careers ago, before the dot.com trash. The trip was solely an exercise in merit-making, since I doubt very much I'll get work in the field, but reconnecting with old friends was really great -- even […]

"Barrett Brown has been released from prison; WikiLeaks publishes to celebrate: Today, investigative journalist Barrett Brown has been released from FCI Three Rivers to a halfway house outside Dallas, earlier than initially scheduled. His parents picked him up from the federal prison to drive him six hours to his new residence. Brown's release come […]